


Spawning Day

by BirdOfHermes



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Dancing, F/M, First Kiss, Slow Dancing, Unresolved Sexual Tension, and that she likes him when he's not being a skeez, friendship ship, headcanon that he's actually really sweet once he realizes he likes her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 02:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3879259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdOfHermes/pseuds/BirdOfHermes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quill wants something from Gamora for his birthday. Surprisingly, it's not what she expected. Post GotG.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spawning Day

Peter Quill had one serious fucking headache.

“Oh God, kill me,” he mumbled as the thumping in his brain intensified as he tried to move his body parts. To his absolute shock, a flat female voice answered him.

“Sure, but we’re in deep space. How would you prefer that I dispense of your corpse?”

Quill palmed his face, peeping through his fingers to see Gamora sitting across from him, her long legs crossed, staring at him with her usual stoic expression.

“Mornin’, Gamora,” he said through a mouth that felt as dry and sandpaper, and yet the taste on his tongue was nothing as mild. “What the hell happened last night?”

He sniffed as he caught the scent of something vile and glanced down to see a bucket a quarter of the way full with what appeared to be vomit. Charming, even for his living quarters.

“You insisted on hitting every bar in the near quadrant because of some sort of anniversary. You got into a couple fights and then came stumbling back rather inebriated with Rocket, Drax, and Groot. Groot dumped you in here and you proceeded to tell me you were so happy you could puke. And then you did. For about half an hour.”

Quill finally managed to sit up. “Oh, right. Yesterday was my birthday.”

“If that’s what you want to call it.” She stood and tossed him a bottle of water. He gulped a mouthful and swished it around in his mouth to rid it of any remaining barf, spit it into the bucket, and then shuffled over to his small sink in the corner.

“So what brings you here?” he said around his toothbrush and toothpaste foam. “Come to give me my present?”

Gamora placed a hand on her hip. “Why on earth would I celebrate the day you were spawned?”

Quill pouted, then spit into the sink. “You have to be at least a tiny bit happy I’m alive. You know, deep down in that mineshaft you call a heart.”

Gamora rolled her eyes. “I merely came in to make sure you hadn’t drowned in vomit during your sleep. You didn’t, so I’ll be going now.”

She strode towards the ladder leading out and he called out to her. “Hey! What about my present?”

She sent him another frosty look over her shoulder, one hand resting on the ladder. “The fact that I don’t kill you every time you drag me into your shenanigans is present enough.”

Quill wiped his mouth and shook his head. “You’re something else, y’know that?”

Her eyes narrowed even further. “What exactly am I?”

“You want me to believe so bad that you don’t care, but you’re always the one to save my ass. So I have to figure out care about it just a little.”

Her face wrinkled with disgust. “I have no interest in your backside whatsoever.”

“Damn, I keep forgetting you’re so literal,” Quill muttered. “What I mean is that I can always depend on you to do the right thing. We may not be best friends, but I respect you and I think you respect me just a little bit because I know the truth about you.”

“Which is?”

He stepped closer, keeping eye contact because he knew that was one of the few ways to get Gamora to stay put, or also not punch him. “You’re more than what Thanos made you. But you keep that close to the chest because everyone’s so used to seeing the assassin and you’re afraid of what they’ll think of the real you.”

“I fear nothing—”

“Really? Alright, then let’s test it. Do you know what I want for my birthday present from you?”

“What?”

He spread his arms. “A dance. One dance.”

She stared at him. “You are serious?”

“Yep. Right now. I want to see you dance.”

Gamora finally dropped her hand from the ladder, eying him. “Why are you so insistent that I understand this phenomena of dancing, Quill?”

“Think about it, Gamora. What if all those people who think you’re just a murderer realize that there are other sides to you? Creative sides. Artistic sides. Dancing is more than just body movements. It’s self-expression. And I think you can express more with your body than words.”

Her lips pursed. He resisted the urge to stare at them. The silence stretched for almost a minute.

“Let us get one thing straight,” she said finally. “If this has anything to do with your mouth or your genitalia, I will cut them off.”

“Wow, you’ll cut off my mouth? How does that even work? Have you done it before? That is suspiciously specific.”

“Shut up and turn on the music, Quill.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He walked over to the console and turned on Awesome Mix Vol. 2, beckoning the alien still glaring suspiciously at him until she walked within touching range.

“We’ll start with something simple,” he said as the music slowly swelled. “It’s called a slow dance.”

“How primitive,” she immediately snapped, if only to hide the way she jumped when Quill’s hand snuck around the small of her back.

“Relax, dragon lady,” he said, rolling his eyes and lifting her right hand in his. “You just sway back and forth. Sometimes you spin. Sometimes you dip. Depends on how light you are on your feet.”

He brought her into the circle of his body and started to rock with her. She stayed stiff against him at first, cocking her head to the side slightly as the lyrics began.

_“Lovin’ you is easy ‘cause you’re beautiful_

_Making love with you is all I wanna do_

_Lovin’ you is more than just a dream come true_

_And everything that I do_

_Is out of lovin’ you_

_La la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la la la…”_

“I continue to be confused at how obsessed your Terran culture is with love,” Gamora sighed, staring across his shoulder as they started to turn a little. “Especially since this woman is shallow enough to only love people who are physically pleasant to look upon.”

“You aliens. You have all this technology and you still don’t know a damn thing about living.”

She looked at him then, offended. “Oh, and you do?”

“Damn straight. She’s not talking about physical beauty, you big idiot,” Quill said fearlessly, though he half-expected her to clock him for the insult. “She’s talking about more than that. Someone can look like Groot and still be beautiful if it’s their personality or their actions. That’s what love is about. Looking past the surface to see what’s underneath.”

“And what do you know of that, Peter Quill? Are you not covered in scars from the dozens of women you’ve only loved for their surfaces?”

“Hey, I’m not saying I understand love, but maybe I get it better than you do.”

“I have loved nothing save my late parents, but even that brief time is probably more than you will ever understand.” The annoyance had fled her voice, leaving a tinge of sorrow behind. Quill instinctively pulled her closer, sliding his hand higher up her back.

“Hey,” he said in a softer tone. “I wasn’t trying to pick a fight or bring up bad memories. I’m just saying to give the lady a break. I like this song. I kind of relate to it a bit.”

Gamora exhaled through her nose, calming to his relief. “Fine. It is a lovely melody, even if I do not completely comprehend the words.”

“Good.” He moved back enough to twirl her, grinning at the slightly alarmed expression she gave him after he pulled her back in.

“I could have fallen.”

“You didn’t. I told you you’d be a natural at this.”

She tried to scowl, but he could see the edge of her lips twitching like she wanted to smile. “Stop complimenting me. I am not some token of your affection.”

“Ugh, you don’t have to make everything about being a man and a woman, Gamora,” he groaned.

“What? Would you slow dance with Drax? Or Groot?”

“I would if they wouldn’t step on my toes and break my foot in half.”

“I would pay to see that.”

“I am not a common whore, thank you very much,” Quill sniffed, and Gamora finally laughed. He wished he could take a snapshot of it because she did it so rarely and it made her look all kinds of lovely.

“Since when?”

“Hey, people can buy my thieving skills, but this dancing thing is private.”

“And yet you insisted on sharing it with me.”

He slowed a bit, meeting her eyes. “So what does that tell you?”

Gamora tried to think of a witty comeback, but for some reason, nothing surfaced. She found herself actually considering his words for once. Her skin warmer now than when they’d started. Something in her gut fluttered a bit in those little moments where Peter Quill looked at her with more than just lust. He was a pain, but there were rare instances where she could spot something noble and kind in him, and it scared her. She flashed back to the instant after he’d rescued her in the cold reaches of space outside of Knowhere, thrown back into consciousness only to find him on top of her, having saved her life with no real reason other than he couldn’t leave her to die. She meant something. She didn’t know what, and she wasn’t sure if she should find out, but a tiny part of her wanted to.

Her fingers tightened on his for the briefest of seconds before she leaned in, kissing him. It was gentle yet it filled her with even more heat than before. He didn’t try to ravage her or slip his tongue inside her mouth, as if he sensed what she wanted. He just stroked the length of her spine until it was over, which she couldn’t calculate because her mind went blank the instant their lips touched.

She drew back first, tilting her face to whisper in his ear. “Happy birthday, Peter.”

Then she turned and walked out without looking back. Peter stared after her, smiled slowly, and walked towards his clothes bag to change, whistling the end of the melody. 

**Author's Note:**

> I may be in the minority of the fandom shipping this, but IDGAF. They are adorable. Starmora for lyfe.


End file.
